UK legislation to introduce the UPC system is finalised

UK legislation to introduce the UPC system is finalised

31 March 2016

Following the approval of both Houses of Parliament of the draft secondary legislation to amend the UK Patents Act 1977 to give effect to the UPC Agreement and EU legislation on the Unitary patent, the final legislation has now been published. The legislation is in in the form of a Statutory Instrument (SI) and the SI (2016 No. 388) was “made” on 12 March 2016 (i.e. was signed and is no longer in draft). No changes were made to the draft SI that was laid before Parliament in January 2016. As stated in Article 1(2) of the SI, it will only come into force when the UPC Agreement comes into force. This SI is one of the two SIs required to enable the UK to ratify the UPC Agreement. The other SI is required to reflect the UPC Protocol on Privileges and Immunities, and is now being drafted following the recent approval of that Protocol by the Preparatory Committee at the February meeting.